NOTE: this page contains reference documentation for installing and operating Sensu on Ubuntu and Debian systems. For instructions installing or operating Sensu on other platforms, please visit the supported platforms page.

Install Sensu Core

Sensu Core is installed on Ubuntu and Debian systems via a native system
installer package (i.e. a .deb file), which is available for download from the
Sensu Downloads page, and from APT package management repositories. The
Sensu Core package installs several processes including sensu-server,
sensu-api, and sensu-client.

If you wish to install Sensu packages on newer Debian or Ubuntu releases, please
try installing a package built for the most recent Debian stable or
Ubuntu LTS release.

Install Sensu using APT (recommended)

NOTE: As of Sensu version 0.27, apt repository configuration has
changed to include the “codename” of the Ubuntu/Debian release. To
install or upgrade to the latest version of Sensu, please ensure you
have updated existing repository configurations.

NOTE: as mentioned above, the sensu package installs all of the Sensu Core
processes, including sensu-client, sensu-server, and sensu-api.

Configure Sensu. No “default” configuration is provided with Sensu, so
none of the Sensu processes will run without the corresponding configuration.
Please refer to the “Configure Sensu” section (below), for more
information on configuring Sensu. At minimum, all of the Sensu processes
will need a working transport definition. The Sensu client will need
a client definition, and both the sensu-server and sensu-api will
need a data-store (Redis) definition — all of which are explained
below.

Install Sensu Enterprise

Sensu Enterprise is installed on Ubuntu and Debian systems via a native
system installer package (i.e. a .deb file). The Sensu Enterprise installer
package is made available via the Sensu Enterprise APT repository, which
requires access credentials to access. The Sensu Enterprise packages install two
processes: sensu-enterprise (which provides the Sensu server and API from a
single process), and sensu-enterprise-dashboard (which provides the dashboard
API and web application).

WARNING: Sensu Enterprise is designed to be a drop-in replacement for the Sensu
Core server and API, only. Sensu Enterprise uses the same sensu-client
process provided by the Sensu Core installer packages (above). As a result,
Sensu Enterprise does not need to be installed on every system being
monitored by Sensu.

Configure Sensu Enterprise. No “default” configuration is provided with
Sensu Enterprise, so Sensu Enterprise will run without the corresponding
configuration. Please refer to the “Configure Sensu” section (below)
for more information on configuring Sensu Enterprise.

Configure Sensu

By default, all of the Sensu services on Ubuntu and Debian systems will load
configuration from the following locations:

/etc/sensu/config.json

/etc/sensu/conf.d/

NOTE: Additional or alternative configuration file and directory locations may
be used by modifying Sensu’s service scripts and/or by starting the Sensu
services with the corresponding CLI arguments. For more information, please
consult the Sensu Configuration reference documentation.

Create the Sensu configuration directory

In some cases, the default Sensu configuration directory (i.e.
/etc/sensu/conf.d/) is not created by the Sensu installer, in which case it is
necessary to create this directory manually.

sudo mkdir /etc/sensu/conf.d

Example client configuration

Copy the following contents to a configuration file located at
/etc/sensu/conf.d/client.json:

Example transport configuration

At minimum, all of the Sensu processes require configuration to tell them how to
connect to the configured Sensu Transport.

Copy the following contents to a configuration file located at
/etc/sensu/conf.d/transport.json:

{"transport":{"name":"rabbitmq","reconnect_on_error":true}}

NOTE: if you are using Redis as your transport, please use "name": "redis"
for your transport configuration. For more information, please visit the
transport definition specification.

Please refer to the configuration instructions for the corresponding
transport for configuration file examples (see Redis, or RabbitMQ
reference documentation).

Example data store configuration

The Sensu Core server and API processes, and the Sensu Enterprise process all
require configuration to tell them how to connect to Redis (the Sensu data
store). Please refer to the Redis reference documentation for configuration
file examples.

Example API configurations

Standalone configuration

Copy the following contents to a configuration file located at
/etc/sensu/conf.d/api.json:

{"api":{"host":"localhost","bind":"0.0.0.0","port":4567}}

Distributed configuration

Obtain the IP address of the system where the Sensu API is installed. For the
purpose of this guide, we will use 10.0.1.7 as our example IP address.

Create a configuration file with the following contents at
/etc/sensu/conf.d/api.json on the Sensu server and API system(s):

{"api":{"host":"10.0.1.7","bind":"10.0.1.7","port":4567}}

Example Sensu Enterprise Dashboard configurations

Standalone configuration

Copy the following contents to a configuration file located at
/etc/sensu/dashboard.json:

The Sensu Enterprise Dashboard process requires configuration to tell it how
to connect to Redis (the Sensu data store). Please refer to the Redis
installation instructions for configuration file examples.

Enable the Sensu services to start on boot

By default, the Sensu services are not configured to start automatically on
system boot (we recommend managing the Sensu services with a process supervisor
such as runit). To enable Sensu services on system
boot, use the update-rc.d utility.

WARNING: the sensu-enterprise-dashboard process is intended to be a drop-in
replacement for the Uchiwa dashboard. Please ensure that the Uchiwa processes
are not configured to start on system boot before enabling the Sensu
Enterprise Dashboard to start on system boot.

Disable the Sensu services on boot

If you have enabled Sensu services on boot and now need to disable them, this
can also be accomplished using the update-rc.d utility.

Disable the Sensu client on system boot

sudo update-rc.d sensu-client disable

Disable the Sensu Core server on system boot

sudo update-rc.d sensu-server disable

Disable the Sensu Core API on system boot

sudo update-rc.d sensu-api disable

Disable Sensu Enterprise on system boot

sudo update-rc.d sensu-enterprise disable

Disable Sensu Enterprise Dashboard on system boot

sudo update-rc.d sensu-enterprise-dashboard disable

Operating Sensu

Managing the Sensu services/processes

To manually start and stop the Sensu services, use the following commands:

Verify the Sensu Enterprise Dashboard is running by visiting view the
dashboard at http://localhost:3000 (replace localhost with the hostname or
IP address where the Sensu Enterprise Dashboard is running).

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